Flora Grubb: What makes a landscape award-worthy

From a lacy shawl of Japanese maples shading a Berkeley hillside to bold colors painting a Tiburon slope, beauty is in the eyes of the judges -- and now of the voting public -- for this year's Considered Design Awards.

The nationwide online competition is sponsored by Remodelista.com and Gardenista.com to celebrate stunning home-interior and garden designs by professionals as well as do-it-yourselfers.

The sites' editors received hundreds of entries in 17 categories for this second annual event. They opted to spread the judging around the country, seeking out a "roster of design-world luminaries" for the task.

One of the Bay Area finalists in the 2014 Considered Design Awards contest from Gardenista.com is this stunning hillside of color in Tiburon, designed by Arterra Landscape Architects.
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Michele Lee Willson
)

In the Bay Area, they tapped Flora Grubb, garden designer and owner of San Francisco's chic Flora Grubb Gardens, to tackle the best professional landscape category.

We caught up with Grubb at the nursery -- an oasis in the industrial Bayview district -- to talk about what makes for an award-worthy garden, whether created by a professional or homeowner.

When we arrived, she was poring over photos to whittle down 29 entries in her category to five finalists, with the winner to be selected by the public in online balloting.

"It's tough to judge because they're all so impressive," Grubb said. "These are beautiful gardens at what could be considered estates. It's not going to be easy."

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She did manage to narrow it to five, however, selecting three Bay Area landscapes among the finalists -- a modern Pacific Heights setting designed by Terremoto in San Francisco; a colorful hillside in Tiburon by Arterra Landscape Architects; and a calming "outdoor room" by Mary Barensfeld Architecture for a home in Berkeley. (See more on these gardens in an accompanying article.)

Public voting in all categories remains open through Aug. 8, and winners will be posted on the Remodelista and Gardenista sites Aug. 9.

Tough choice

In determining what makes for a prize-winning garden design among entries spanning a spectrum of climates across the country, Grubb said she had to briefly set aside her California water-wise sensibilities.

"In the West, we're all about water use, about gardens that sip rather than gulp," she said. "So when you deal with the whole nation, you have to consider places where water miraculously falls from the sky on a regular basis. Some (entries) are lush, water-gulping gardens and lawns and plants that would be out of the question in California."

Grubb also addressed the tricky element of judging gardens from photographs. "To me, the most important thing about a garden is how it feels to be in that garden, and how it feels to the garden's owner. Does it bring you pleasure and joy and a place to find rest?

"You can get a little of that from a picture, but -- like ... architecture -- something can look very beautiful, but it doesn't always feel great when you're there."

Even so, Grubb said the photographs allowed her to consider the composition of the gardens -- "the way the whole thing hangs together," as she put it, including "whether there's a cohesive thread, if the garden provides a sense of respite, if it has some sun and some shady places, some structural elements, lots of planes of color in foliage, flowers, pottery and other elements."

For home use

Though Grubb's competition category is professional designs, she says those images can translate in practical ways for the home gardener and serve as sources of inspiration when developing or improving the landscaping.

"Most garden media is about helping the rest of us aspire to something greater," she says, "just like in fashion, where we like looking at pictures of couture fashion. We might not go out and buy it, but it's art, and we can get practical ideas from it."

In fact, Grubb encourages home gardeners to collect images of appealing landscapes from magazines and Pinterest and take those to their local nurseries when shopping.

She also suggests taking a photograph -- preferably printed, so it's larger than a cellphone image -- of the spot in the yard you're planning to work with.

She said, "If you want two pots to go by the front door, bring in a picture of your front door. The folks at your nursery can help with how plants work with the architecture of your house."

Other tips Grubb gave for home gardeners developing a landscaping concept include:

Focus. "Have a general idea of what you want your garden to look like. Some people love order, with really tailored gardens. Some love the chaos of wild and jungle-y. It's whatever makes you happy. But once you settle on it, it will affect what kind of plants you choose (and) how close together you place them."

Color. "One of the simplest places to start is to commit to a color scheme," Grubb said. "Think about the color of your house, what elements are already there. Then once you're in the nursery, don't get overwhelmed with what looks beautiful (there). It might not work in your garden. "For me," she said, "a pet peeve is grabbing a potpourri of flower colors -- we call it the Home Depot six-pack. That works for gas stations and shopping malls, but give a little more thought to color scheme. When you achieve a harmonious thing with color, it just sings to you."

Pottery. "The pottery is important too," Grubb says. Plants come and go, but the pottery can hold down the design, the form, really give it structure."

Use. "Think about how you will really use your garden. My boyfriend and I eat in our garden, so we have a table out there. And recently we hung up a hammock, which completely altered the way we use the garden area," Grubb said. "When we have guests, we'll often have a lot of kids, and they're all over that hammock, hanging from it, swinging on it. It's a point of entry for them. So think about how you use the space for yourself, how you use it for guests. Think about a sense of place. Do you like to sit in the sun? In the shade? On a San Francisco evening, it's freezing. So you're not going to have dinner there, but maybe coffee in the morning. Things like that."

Hide flaws. "One of the basics of design in small gardens is to think of what you don't want to see and how to get rid of it -- an electrical box on the side of your house, or the neighbor's fence," Grubb says. "There are fast-growing plants you can put in that can screen."

Help. "Ask for help. Talk to the folks at your nursery, and also ask your friends who have gardens that you love," Grubb said. "Believe me, the best amateur gardener really wants to give advice."

Follow Angela Hill on Twitter @GiveEmHill.

CAST YOUR VOTES FOR THE CONSIDERED DESIGN AWARDS

Vote online by Aug. 8 in this nationwide competition, with 17 categories, sponsored by Remodelista.com (for interior designs) and Gardenista.com (for garden and landscape design). Three Bay Area gardens are among the finalists in the best professional landscape category, judged by Flora Grubb of the San Francisco nursery Flora Grubb Gardens and by Gardenista editors.